Salar Jung Museum leads rise in visits

Thanks to the peaceful conditions prevailing in the State, the tourist arrivals have increased by leaps and there has been a steady rise of visitors to the famed Salar Jung Museum (SJM). In comparison to the last few years, there has been a steady rise in footfalls.

In 2014-15, 12, 65,787 people visited the museum and in 2015-16 the number rose to 13,28,923. SJM director, A Nagender Reddy says, “Post the formation of the state there has been a steady increase of tourists. Favourable conditions in the city, good accommodation and food are reasons why people favour coming to Hyderabad.

Between April and May this year, 2,44, 486 people visited the museum apart from 991 foreigners. Among domestic visitors, people from West Bengal top the list.

M Veerender, deputy curator, SJM says, “Last year during November-December, a large number of tourists visited the museum and most of them were government servants who avail LTC.”

Museum authorities say it was the first time that 13 lakh figure was surpassed in 2015-16 and are hopeful that the figure to touch 14 lakh visitors. The number of visitors took a nose dive during the Telangana agitation and the number had dipped to 11 lakh in 2013-14.

With the special children’s gallery to be opened soon, museum authorities feel that children would get attracted. A senior staffer at the museum said, “Usually, small kids below 10 years may not appreciate the collection but the children’s gallery with 5,000 objects spread over 5,000 sq ft with toys from different periods would keep them glued.”

Year	Indians	Foreigners
2011-2012	1211289	10509
2012-2013	1272412	10898
2013-2014	1104702	9987
2014-2015	1256278	9509
2015-2016	1320120	8803
2016-2017( April & May)	244486	991

By: T P Venu